matplotlib: draw major tick labels under minor labels
axis-labels, matplotlib, plot, python
Solution
You can use `axis` method `set_tick_params()` with the keyword `pad`. Compare following example.
import datetime
import random
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.dates as dates
# make up some data
x = [datetime.datetime.now() + datetime.timedelta(hours=i) for i in range(100)]
y = [i+random.gauss(0,1) for i,_ in enumerate(x)]
# plot
plt.plot(x,y)
# beautify the x-labels
plt.gcf().autofmt_xdate()
ax = plt.gca()
# set date ticks to something sensible:
xax = ax.get_xaxis()
xax.set_major_locator(dates.DayLocator())
xax.set_major_formatter(dates.DateFormatter('%d/%b'))
xax.set_minor_locator(dates.HourLocator(byhour=range(0,24,3)))
xax.set_minor_formatter(dates.DateFormatter('%H'))
xax.set_tick_params(which='major', pad=15)
plt.show()
PS: This example is borrowed from moooeeeep
Here's how the above snippet would render:
Problem
This seems like it should be easy - but I can't see how to do it: I have a plot with time on the X-axis. I want to set two sets of ticks, minor ticks showing the hour of the day and major ticks showing the day/month. So I do this: ``` # set date ticks to something sensible: xax = ax.get_xaxis() xax.set_major_locator(dates.DayLocator()) xax.set_major_formatter(dates.DateFormatter('%d/%b')) xax.set_minor_locator(dates.HourLocator(byhour=range(0,24,3))) xax.set_minor_formatter(dates.DateFormatter('%H')) ``` This labels the ticks ok, but the major tick labels (day/month) are drawn on top of the minor tick labels: How do I force the major tick labels to get plotted below the minor ones? I tried putting newline escape characters (\n) in the DateFormatter, but it is a poor solution as the vertical spacing is not quite right. Any advice would be appreciated!